“What you lookin’ at? You all a bunch of fuckin’ a**holes. You know why? You don’t have the guts to be what you wanna be? You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your f*ckin’ fingers and say, ‘That’s the bad guy’. So … what does that make you? Good? You’re not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don’t have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say good night to the bad guy! Come on. The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Come on. Make way for the bad guy. There’s a bad guy comin’ through! Better get outta his way!” — Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface.
This quote came to mind as I digested the true implication of yesterday’s budget speech. That being:
• R1.42 extra on a packet of cigarettes.
• 12 cents more on a bottle of wine.
• 6.5 cents more on a can of beer.
• R2.22 more on a bottle of distilled relief.
All good and well, right? If people want to engage in so-called harmful activities let them pay, right? We have a deficit to cover here, right? Hell some shady illuminati-type mind control organisation going by the pseudonym of the National Council Against Smoking thinks that this is not enough. No siree, tax is “only” 50% of the cost of smokes in SA whereas in countries like Ireland it amounts to 79%. This got me thinking, firstly, can we form a national council against the National Council against Smoking? And secondly, is that the most unjustified use of the word “only” outside of the president tallying up his brood?
What is with this beef against us who choose to harmlessly enjoy our lives on this planet? Think of how much your average drinker contributes to the fiscus; beyond recouping the input costs plus profits for all in the supply chain we also pay income tax, VAT, then add sin tax etc. And what do we get from it? Judgement and scorn.
So all I’m asking is, how about some gratitude for us, those hardy souls among us, who as Ndumiso Ngcobo (www.thoughtleader.co.za/silwane) says “use their livers as the last line of defence against the corrosive effects of alcohol”. We who aid further study into the effects of cirrhosis on the human body. We, who keep rehabs in business, provide entertainment at dull weddings/funerals and, as Mariah Carey recently showed, at award ceremonies.
Imagine a world without Boris Yeltsin, PSL players, club-goers who give bouncers an outlet for that 3.30am bout of roid rage and those married to undeserving spouses. We who showed the world that Coca-Cola can be made just a tad more palatable with just a shot or three of Mainstay and that Nooit vir Nooit can stay on air for eternity as long as it plays after the week’s labour is done. A little “thank you for keeping SAB in business so they can sponsor the rugby/cricket/football/curling going”. Thank you for giving Louis Gossett Jr a twilight career as a platteland masculine icon. Thank us ladies for The Men of Thurst.
Thank you for the huge profits, employment opportunities and tax revenues the liquor and smoking industries generate. Thank you for your help in making watching Bafana bearable. Thank you for Happy Hour, jokes about judges and endless fascinating sagas involving former police chiefs. Are we asking for too much? Is it going overboard to expect that we be formally incorporated into economic theory/modelling? The Manuel/Gordhan Fun Factor Fleecing Theorem. Bankers, tax collectors, surely the vilest creatures outside the Book of Revelations (no not Hustler, the biblical one!) and Aussie refs have been recognised in that field for eons.
Say hello to the bad guys “cos you’ll never see the likes of us again when we have been finally taxed to a tea-drinking, humus-eating version of death”.
Ha ha, very good – viva tjwala, negwaai, neabantwana !!!
Brilliant!
Best laugh of the day! Well said with lots of fun!
…and the Mainstay said (HIC) right on brother!
No one appreciates us, Ntshings.
We hold this great nation up, keep the boat rocking, but legislation is constantly being revised to isolate us – we can’t smoke as we please anymore, SAB is supporting the JMPD in their attempts to put us all away, but service delivery depends on us smoking and drinking.
I say we boycot booze for a week and see the country collapse, then they’ll know our value!
Love it!
“The Manuel/Gordhan Fun Factor Fleecing Theorem” Whahahaha! Excellent. You know, I sneakily suspect that is the reason there is talks of legalising prostitution. Double your fun tax income! Most of all, I think we should be thanked for giving everyone a new public enemy no. 1. Just think, we smokers are easier to catch and add to the tax bundle in the form of fines instead of subtracting from it by going to jail. Everyone can blame just about everything from mountain fires to murder on us because, “Sis! he/she drinks AND SMOKES”. So, don’t worry, the government won’t listen to those uber clean living people too closely except to pay them lip service, both Gordhan and Manual must know that a parasite who kills the host will soon be dead himself. I heard the other day that some of those uber clean have been diagnosed with an addiction to pain and that is why you find them at the gym or jogging on the road at all hours. SIS! Tax them!
hear hear >well said!
And then they take those sin taxes and pretend to use them for the public benerfit. Yeah right. Like we all benefit from R1 million cars and bask in the glorious vapour trail of the arms deal. It’s enough to drive a man to drink, if he could afford a car.
Thank you for some common sense at last!
Well shaid, that man! Hic.
They nail us sinners with huge taxes – more than enough to pay for all the (usually) later health effects of booze and smokes – yet still have the nerve to berate and belittle us because of the alleged costs of our stress-relievers. Perish the thought, but maybe we smokers and dipsomaniacs should actually quit – we’d bring the economy to its knees in a month
Excellent!
How about explaining that we are all victims of South Africa’s political circumstances. I t must be Zuma who makes us drink and smoke!
Nice one Bongz, see the thing is no one stand for the truth, we just wanna tag along and be safe or rather keep the peace
@ Spearpoint- The Sumo believes that route would prove successful in but a week.
To all taxpayers regardless of colour who also pay their normal taxes so that three other people can live off them not to mention our extremely highly paid and protected politicians thank you too for not leaving and going “home” wherever that may be. I do not smoke or drink but thank yo guys for your contributions. Mine comes from tranquillisers and tablets to keep me alive which I have to pay very heavily for.
bad guy is flavour of the month. check out “die antwoord”, if you been under a rock and don’t know the flavour of bad that’s getting the interweb all hot under the collar and down below at the same time. Bad, mad and smoking hot. down with the pleasantries and pretences. we’re all human after all. and sparing monks and…monks, we all enjoy a little dop, even priests. HYPOCRACY, and MONEY. The two real evils, not dop and ciggys.
Great reading but you left out that other great sin. Owning a car. Ministers are of coarse never subject to these taxes as they fill up at the government garage. That is either free for business or charged at R3.50/lt or they are paid to use their cars per km.
If they buy groceries at the Government store they do not pay VAT and they get duty free everything.